“The Secret” was launched by Rhonda Byrne in 2006 and says that thoughts have an energy that attracts like energy and you attract into your life whatever you think about. This tool refers to what Buddha said: "What you have become is the result of what you have thought“. It suggests the following: “Your dominant thoughts will find a way to manifest.…whatever you focus on the most is what will be most attracted to your life. Once you are aware of this law and how it works, you can start to use it to deliberately to attract what you want into your life… Like attracts like…You get what you think about, whether wanted or unwanted…You are a living magnet…You get what you put your energy and focus on…Energy attracts like energy…it has it roots in Quantum Physics”.

But just focussing on your dominant thoughts, wishful thinking about what you want to achieve and trying to become rich quickly can lead to an ad-hoc, short term and cosmetic success, and on the other hand, it can affect your personal brand negatively and can ruin your reputation. The Secret is an unstructured process. It can be a selfish and a greedy business and can make you a big looser if you don’t reflect your true character, don’t work hard, don't deliver and perform continuously and don’t live and act according to your authentic self.

Attracting successGandhi said: “To believe in something, and not to live it, is dishonest”. Who you really are, what your dreams are, what you care about, what you are passionate about, what you want with your life, etc. should come out and be embedded in your vision/dream, brand and Personal Balanced Scorecard as described in Effective Personal and Company Brand Management; A New Blueprint for Powerful and Authentic Personal and Company Branding (Rampersad, 2008) and in my article, Authentic Personal Branding published at http://www.brandchannel.com/ .

You should act, behave, perform and deliver accordingly in order to get what you want in a more enduring and sustainable way. If you are holistically branded according the introduced authentic personal branding concept, your brand will get energy from likeminded brands and will attract success, people with similar beliefs and opportunities that are a perfect fit for you, much more effectively, than just focusing on your dominant thoughts only. »